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Quiz 1 - Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives
Absolute Location - the exact position of an object or place stated in spatial
coordinates or a grid system designed for locational purposes, e.g., latitude
and longitude.
Built landscape - the part of the physical landscape that represents material
culture; the buildings, roads, bridges, and similar structures large and small of
the cultural landscape.
Cartogram - a map that has been simplified to present a single idea ina
diagrammatic way: the base is not normally true to scale.
census - an official enumeration of the population, with details as to age, sex,
occupation, etc. The USA has a census every ten years( 2010, 2020, 2030, etc.)
Choropleth - a thematic map in which ranked classes of some variable are
depicted with shading patterns or colors for predefined zones.
Connectivity - the directness of routes linking pairs of places; an indication of
the degree of internal connection in a transport network; all of the tangible
and intangible means of connection and communication between places.
Contagious - the rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend though out
a population; person to person spread of culture.
Density Arithmetic - the total number of people divided by the total land
area.
Diffusion - the process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to
another over time.
Distance decay - the diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance
of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.
Distortion - area, distance, direction, shape
Dot - a thematic map in which a dot represents some frequency of the
mapped variable.
Environmental determinism - a nineteenth and early twentieth century
approach to the study of geography that argued that the general laws sought
by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences; physical
environment caused human activities.
Equator - an imaginary east-west line that encircles the globe halfway
between the North and South Poles.
Formal Region - an area in which everyone shares in one or more distinctive
characteristics (usually cultural).
Friction of distance - a measure of the retarding or restricting effect of
distance on spatial interaction; the greater the distance, the greater the
“friction” and the less the interaction or exchange, or the greater the cost of
achieving the exchange.
Functional Region (Nodal) - an area organized around a node or focal point.
Geographic Information System (GIS) - a computer hardware and software
system that handles geographically referenced data; it uses and produces
maps and has the ability to perform many types of spatial analysis.
geography -the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere,
and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the
distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries. Describing
the earth.
geospatial - relating to or denoting data that is associated with a particular
location.
geospatial technology - refers to equipment used in visualization,
measurement, and analysis of earth's features, typically involving such systems
as GPS (global positioning systems), GIS (geographical information systems),
and RS (remote sensing).
Global Positioning System (GPS) - a system that determines the precise
position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations,
and receivers.
globalization - the tendency of businesses, technologies, or philosophies to
spread throughout the world, or the process of making this happen.
Hierarchical - the spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node
of authority or power to other persons or places; spread of culture from one
important / large area to another important / large area.
hinterlands - either rural or urban or both, that is closely linked economically
with a nearby town or city.
International Date Line - an arc that fro the most part follows 180º longitude,
although it deviates in several place to avoid dividing land areas. When you
cross it heading east, the clock moves back 24 hours, and when you cross it
going west the calendar moves ahead one day.
Isoline - a thematic map with lines that connect points of equal value.
Latitude - the numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels
drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the Equator.
Longitude - the numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians
drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the Prime
Meridian.
Map - a two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earth’s surface or a
portion of it.
Mental Map - (cognitive map) the map like image of the world, country,
region, city, or neighborhood a person carries in mind.
Mercator projection - a projection of a map of the world onto a cylinder in
such a way that all the parallels of latitude have the same length as the
equator, used especially for marine charts and certain climatological maps.
Meridian - line of longitude
Model - a simplified abstraction of reality, structured to clarify causal
relationships: e.g., Demographic Transition, Gravity Model, etc.
Network - the areal pattern of sets of places and the routes (links) connecting
them along which movement can take place.
Pattern (linear, centralized, random) - understand diagrams for each
Perceptual / Vernacular - an area that people believe to exist as part of their
cultural identity.
Physiological - the number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is
land suitable for agriculture.
place - a specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular characteristic.
Place Name (Toponym)- the name given to a portion of Earth’s surface.
polar projection - a cartographic projection of the sphere in which the point
of sight is at the center and the plane of projection passes through one of
the polar circles
Possibilism - the theory that the physical environment may set limits on
human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical
environment and choose a course of action form many alternatives.
Prime Meridian - an imaginary line passing through the Royal Observatory at
Greenwich, England, serving by agreement as the 0º line of longitude.
Projection - the system used to transfer locations from Earth’s surface to a flat
map.
Proportional Symbol - a thematic map in which the size of a symbol varies in
proportion to the frequency or intensity of the mapped variable.
Region (formal/uniform, functional / nodal, perceptual / vernacular) - an area
distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features.
regionalism - the expression of a common sense of identity and purpose
combined with the creation and implementation of institutions that express a
particular identity and shape collective action within a geographical region.
Relative Location - the position of a place or activity in relation to other
places or activities; implies spatial relationships and usually suggests the
relative advantages or disadvantages of a location with respect to all
competing locations.
Remote sensing - the acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite
orbiting the planet or other long-distance methods.
Scale (implied degree of generalization) - the size of an area student, from
local to global.
Sequent occupance - successive habitation of same area over time; builds
layer after layer in the region.
Site - the physical character of a place; the absolute location of a place or
activity described by local relief, landform, and other physical characteristics.
Situation - the relative location of a place or activity in relation to the
physical and cultural characteristics of the larger regional or spatial system of
which it is a part; the location of a place relative to other places.
Spatial - of or pertaining to space on or near Earth’s surface. Often a
synonym for geographical and used as an adjective to describe specific
geographic concepts or processes.
Spatial interaction - the movement and flows involving human activity.
Stimulus - the spread of a n underlying principle, even though a specific
characteristic is rejected.
Thematic - a map that demonstrates a particular feature or a single variable.
Four types: dot, isoline, choropleth, and proportional symbol.
Time zone - a geographic region within which the same standard time is used.
Time-spaced compression - an influence on the rate of expansion diffusion of
an idea, observing that the spread or acceptance of an idea is usually delayed
as distance from the source of the innovation increases.